September 15, 2008

Reporters Notebooks

Chris Dufresne, Los Angeles Times: USC No. 1? Not everybody agrees. The Trojans are not a unanimous No. 1 in either the Associated Press or USA Today coaches' polls. Georgia received two first-place votes from the coaches, and Oklahoma and Florida got one vote each.

Tom Luicci, Newark Star-Ledger: If USC played in the Southeastern Conference or the Big 12, would it go unbeaten? The feeling here is no.

Andy McCullough, Daily Orange: Syracuse athletic director Daryl Gross offered no comment on whether he would make a move during the season to fire coach Greg Robinson, who has a 7-31 record the past four years.

Tim Stephens, Orlando Sentinel: Anyone hope for Bowl Championship Series chaos in December can start cheering now for Brigham Young and East Carolina.

John Hunt, Oregonian: Oregon quarterback Justin Roper has a partial tear of the medial collateral ligament in his left knee and will miss two to four weeks.

Bill Koch, Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati quarterback Dustin Grutza, injured in the Bearcats' loss to Oklahoma, might be lost for the season.

Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Mike Leach says Texas Tech is "in for a long year." He added: "What we’ve done, quite honestly, for 2.5 games I don’t consider acceptable. I don’t know at what point they think we arrived. This group of quarterbacks and receivers, we haven’t done anything impressive."

Austin American-Statesman: Mack Brown has offered to let Rice practice in the Longhorns' facilities should the Owls be unable to use their practice field in hurricane-ravaged Houston. The teams play Saturday in Austin.

Mike Sorensen, Deseret News: The oft-maligned and disrespected Mountain West Conference enjoyed perhaps the finest overall day in its 10-year history Saturday, with league teams going 7-1, including four victories over Pacific 10 teams.

Mark Anderson, Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada Las Vegas' stunning victory over Arizona State was only the fifth time the Rebels have defeated a ranked opponent.

Mike Kern, Philadelphia Daily News: Temple is 1-2, but is within a whisker of being 3-0. The Owls have lost two games on the final play.

Neil Hayes, Chicago Sun-Times: No surgery for Charlie Weis. The big guy doesn't plan to undergo surgery in the foreseeable future and may not at all despite tearing both major ligaments in his left knee.